Childrens' books have been enhanced in many different ways to bring animation, dimension and action to the story told by the printed media. Some early examples are the well-known "pop-up" type books having extra layers of page material which are erected into a static structure out of the plane of opposing pages upon opening of the book, or by manipulation of movable pieces within the pages. Different materials, such as fabric, reflective foil and plastics have been attached to book pages. More recently, certain forms of non-printed media, such as sound and light generating devices, have been mounted in book bindings and on the front or back cover with prominent push-button operation for easy activation. Although these types of books succeed in providing an element or aspect to the book in addition to the printed matter, they do not provide physical motion in connection with the book pages apart from the simple moving of the pages by the reader.
There have been many different approaches to creating physical motion of parts attached to generally planar book or card pages to animate the message of printed material. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,988,045 describes an advertising card with a lift tab which changes a traffic light from red to green, and simultaneously releases a cut-out figure of an automobile on a rubber band in tension, whereby the auto speeds across the frontal plane of the card on which it is mounted.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,432,318 and 2,429,335 describe simple cards or pages with sliding and pivoting members between front and back panels. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 2,884,724 describes a foldable greeting card with a movable panel on one of the pages of the card. And U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,895,244; 3,318,040 and 3,559,321 each disclose various cards with movable parts manually movable by an actuator tab or slide. In the inventions described by these patents, the range and type of motion of the moving parts is very limited, and entirely dependent upon manual actuation by the user.
Powered movement of objects relative to a planar surface such as a card or page has also been accomplished in several different ways. U.S. Pat. No. 2,500,106 describes an animated display which has a casing with one side covered by an illustrated front sheet. A motor inside the casing drives a disc and connecting rod to oscillate a sheet behind the front sheet. Illustrated pieces on the frontal surface of the front sheet are attached to the back sheet and thereby oscillated relative to the front sheet to simulate motion. The front sheet can be exchanged. U.S. Pat. No. 3,142,919 describes a single panel display with movable members mounted in front and attached to a motorized cam to produce swinging or rocking motion of the members across the front of the display. The display is not described or suggested for use in the bound format of a book. U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,454 describes a greeting card having a battery powered electrical circuit connected to a piezoelectric wire material which contracts with applied current to rotate a drive gear in a small gear train mounted on the card. Images applied to the gear faces are thereby rotated relative to openings in the card to provide animated motion. And U.S. Pat. No. 622,111 describes a type of covered box with which houses a spring-wound motor which drives a series of linkages supporting objects in relation to a single picture sheet. Opening the cover of the box winds up the motor which sets the linkages and objects in motion. There are no intermediate pages between the front cover and the back display to cover or expose any of the moving objects. In other words, upon opening the cover of the box, all of the moving components are immediately exposed. Also, opening of the cover sets the components into continuous motion until the motor completely winds down. The reader has no control over activation and deactivation of the moving components.
Although these inventions provide motion of objects relative to a planar surface, the manner or exposure and activation of the motion is limited, and therefore of little entertainment value, especially to young children. Also, each of these constructions is dependent upon delicate and fragile mechanisms to produce motion, making them unsuitable for prolonged use by children.